Two Hours to Tidy

 Today I had two hours--one before picking Annie up from ballet and one after sitting with Finn and plotting out classes for next year--to work on our garage, which had turned from Reasonably Tidy Storage Space to Complete Pit of Utter Despair. 

I didn't think I'd get it done!  But by the time I closed the garage door last evening, order was restored (okay, except for Mr. P's workbench, but we'll get to that!).  

Call me an oddity, but I find that there are few things I enjoy more than taking a mess and putting it all to rights.  I just love the entire process: arranging, tossing, organizing, purging, sweeping, tidying.  It's so satisfying!  And yesterday I had done our fridge, which sorely needed it after weeks of neglect due to my running back and forth to Charleston.  It took about two hours there, too--and then I made pumpkin muffins, banana bread, rosemary-chipotle spiced nuts, spinach squares (yummier than they sound, I promise) and almond butter brownies (ditto) from all the bits and pieces I found that needed to be used. 

In fact, I think washing all those dishes took longer than it took to clean the garage!  But it was all good work, and now once the basement is tidied up, I'll feel like I've gotten my home back into shape!

And one more thing that I've discovered: Annie keeps her room immaculately tidy if she is permitted to go into it with an audiobook and listen to stories while she works.  She can spend hours on this.  Her room has gone from total disaster (last year) to being neat as a pin (this year) and the difference is Beverly Cleary!